BETHLEHEM (ICN): Parts of Bethlehem’s besieged Church of the Nativity were in flames on April 8 as a week-long siege continued.
Several hundred Palestinian gunmen and civilians fleeing Israeli tanks were holed up in the church complex, along with a group of monks and nuns.
While Israel said its troops were under orders not to fire at holy places, a number of sacred places have been badly damaged.
Fr David Jaeger, speaking on behalf of the Franciscans in the Holy Land, said Israeli soldiers were guilty of an “indescribable act of barbarity”.
Fr Jaeger said Israel had broken its international obligations and risked “long-term and incalculable” consequences.
The Israeli Army says Palestinian gunmen caused the fire. Gunmen had begun shooting from a bell tower, wounding two Israeli border policemen in a nearby rooftop lookout, an army officer told Reuters news agency.
He said the Israelis returned fire and a smoke grenade started the blaze in a second-floor meeting hall overlooking the Basilica of St Catherine, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity.
One Palestinian gunman was shot dead in the battle, the Israeli source said.
But a priest inside the church, Fr Amjad Sabbara, said that the Palestinian killed was a police officer who had been trying to douse the flames.
He said the blaze had burned for an hour, destroying a piano, chairs, altar cloths and ceremonial cups.
Fr Sabbara estimated that there were 240 people in the church. Some were armed, he said, but they were “not using their arms”.
Bethlehem Mayor, Hanna Nasser, told the BBC that mosaics inside the Basilica of St Catherine had been “affected by the bullets”.
The Israeli Army has been conducting a major military operation across the West Bank, in response to a wave of suicide bombings by Palestinian militants.
